Rural Spotlight - Gin Gin QLD

Rural Spotlight

Rural communities are doing it tough. A combination of floods, droughts and fire are making it difficult for these communities. This is an ongoing worsening situation affecting rural communities as a whole.

The largest employers in these regions are from the agriculture sector - livestock and crops. A drive through the farmland surrounding the Gin Gin community you will see dams, creeks and even a few rivers that are dry. Any blade of grass you see are all dry, brittle and brown.

Gin Gin is just one rural community who have been working towards finding solutions within their own community. Families are struggling with limited available employment opportunities. Towns like Gin Gin are supported by the families on surrounding farms and properties. Indirectly, these circumstances also affect other businesses within the town (retail, trades and others).

Farmers and other business owners within Gin Gin are looking to find alternate sources of income to support their families. Livestock and crop producers are selling direct from the farm gate. In some instances, farmers are using their produce/product to create value-added products - goat milk soaps, honey, leather dressing. To stay in business... you need to get creative.

www.errandsnthings.com.au/

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mica from Errands ‘n Things to find out more about her business. Mica has been operating her business for 2 years providing an errand service for the Gin Gin community. Her aim is to assist people with all aspects of daily life.

Looking at things from a different perspective, Mica provides a service that helps people to do the things they don’t like/want to do or may not have time to do themselves.

“Gin Gin being a small country town, if I just focus on one thing I probably would not get enough work. So I thought I would diversify and offer a broad range of services”, said Mica.

Errands ‘n Things offers a wide range of services, with more being added as a need arises. Most recently, pet and baby sitting in your home has been added to the list of services.

Other services offered include – running of errands; shopping trips; courier serviced for documents or small items; home help cleaning or ironing; gardening; office personal assistant or even help to plan your holiday.

A new service now available is – Waiting service. If you are at work and need someone to wait at home to be there for a trades persons, or to collect a package delivery, etc…

Then Mica and Errands ‘n Things can be there to help out.

https://everythinggingin.com.au/ I recently had the pleasure of meeting Mary-anne and a few of her fellow creatives at the Courthouse Gallery at Gin Gin. “My ultimate dream with E.G.G. is that Gin Gin grows as a community while encouraging local artists to get value for their creations”, said Mary-anne Watts. Each artist spends hours into the creation of their handmade items. E.G.G. raises awareness of both the value of their creativity and also the town of Gin Gin. This online platform gives local creatives an opportunity to showcase their handmade items to a much wider audience. Mary-anne enjoys carving, painting, drawing in pastels and watercolours. Malina Morley, another Gin Gin artist said she enjoys the mediums of “colour pencils, painting and working with clay”. E.G.G. is an online selling platform available on the Everything Gin Gin website. Local creative artists can become involved via an affordable membership program. The platform includes the opportunity to have artists handmade items available for sale online. Support your rural community by buying local. Visit the E.G.G. website to support Gin Gin local artists. A new exciting venture fresh on the Gin Gin business scene is E.G.G – Everything Gin Gin. Mary-anne Watts is the face behind this new platform to help creatives by providing an online selling platform.

www.errandsnthings.com.au/